Mostly Fanfare, Almost a Memory

Still from Mostly Fanfare, courtesy of Monica Bill Barnes.

The most engaging things always seem to be the fleeting ones, the ephemeral, the ones you can only grab at wistfully in your memories, and these eight short dance films, juxtaposed and mashed together in the most delightful way, are no exception. Created by dancer/choreographer and eponymous dance company artistic director Monica Bill Barnes and dancer/filmmaker Celia Rowlson-Hall, Mostly Fanfare is like a glittering dream tinged with melancholy, the way all the best dreams are. The 30-minute collaboration will only exist online for another week—it disappears August 24—so watch it now.

It's a Museum, Girl

George Clive and his Family with an Indian Maid, by Joshua Reynolds, 1765. Staatliche Museen, Berlin. WikiCommons, courtesy Girl Museum.

When arts writer Ashley Remer visited museums over the past three decades, what she noticed the most was girls-- more specifically, the lack thereof.

"[I have been to] literally hundreds and hundreds of museums around the world over the course of my life," says Remer, 35, who grew up in Gainesville, Fla. and has lived everywhere from New York to New Zealand. "I have never seen a show that exclusively looked at the point of view of the girl, or with the girl as its subject. Of course, there have been a few-- most notably at the McCord Museum in Montreal, the 2006 exhibition called ‘Picturing Her: Images of Girlhood,' which concentrated on Canadian art-- but having studied art history [at Florida State University and the University of Auckland in New Zealand], I always found it troublesome how women and girls usually come off as just decoration rather than subject matter."

With that in mind, in March, Remer launched her nonprofit, virtual Girl Museum, dedicated to research, exhibitions, and education centered on the simple yet complex subject of "being a girl." The museum recently unveiled its first online exhibition, "Defining Our Terms," including a broad overview of girlhood in art. Striking images are paired with insightful explanations that will make viewers see each work-- and the role of females in art-- in a whole new light.

Remer says each artwork is overflowing with visual clues to how girls and women have been included and perceived in different cultures throughout the ages. For example, "Reynolds’ portrait George Clive and his Family with an Indian Maid (above) is an amazingly informative image," she says. "There is just so much history overtly stated in the costume and setting and implicit on the physicality and gesture. To have a painted family portrait that includes your servant, engaged in an activity like holding the girl still, which was totally unnecessary, is such a quintessential imperial picture. The ayah’s averted eyes make the scene even more devastating. It should always be remembered when looking at portraits that these people existed. It seems obvious to say, but our visual lives are so inundated with façade and manufactured Hollywood fictions that it is important to keep in mind."

"Defining Our Terms" serves as both the Girl Museum's inaugural exhibition and its future press kit, explaining its mission.

"Our mission is to explore and document the unique experience of growing up female through historic and contemporary images, stories and material culture," says Remer, who runs the museum with the help of volunteers. "We want to raise global awareness about the realities and issues, both nature and nurture, facing girls yesterday, today, and tomorrow. To achieve this, we want to do original research, produce exhibitions, build an archive, and partner with organizations that are already out there doing good work so we can support them and provide venues for girls themselves to have a voice."

The Girl Museum also opened its online boutique on November 27, and you can support the site and help the museum grow by scoring original art or Girl Museum T-shirts. You can also visit the Girl Museum store on Amazon to purchase some suggested reading.

Still want more? Connect with the Girl Museum via Facebook or check out Remer's blog here.

The Girl Project: Five Questions for Kate Engelbrecht

Photo courtesy The Girl Project.

New York-based photographer Kate Engelbrecht is on a mission to empower teenage girls through pictures. She started The Girl Project, a national collection of photos taken by American girls ages 13 to 17, in 2008. Each participant gets a disposable Kodak camera to capture self portraits and anything else that matters in her life. Then she sends it back to Engelbrecht, who is including the most compelling of those on The Girl Project Web site and in an upcoming book and a traveling exhibition scheduled kick off in 2010. Some of the results are heartbreaking, some are uplifting, and others are hilarious--but all the images are surprising and touching.

I recently chatted with Engelbrecht via email:

1. How did the idea for The Girl Project come about?
I became really curious about how much I "knew" about teenage girls regardless of the fact that I didn't know any and had not been one myself for a long time.

2. What was your goal for the project?
In the beginning I set out to explore whether or not if what I knew, or thought I knew, was true. Today its less about a question; it has become my own little mini mission to help share girls' perspectives of themselves. My goal is to compile the images in a high-end photography book as well as a traveling exhibition.

3. What are some of your most favorite/interesting photographs you have received so far?
Hmm... thats difficult to answer. There are so many images. The most interesting to me (in general terms) are those that reveal something really personal... where the girl completely goes for it emotionally and puts herself out there.

4. How many girls have participated so far?
Around 800. I hope to have 5,000 by the end.

5. What is the most surprising thing you have discovered doing this project?
For certain it is how innocent these girls are. They are so much more real than the world unconsciously leads us to believe.

Note: If you're a teenage girl who wants to participate in The Girl Project, sign up here.

Graffiti Queens

Photo courtesy McCaig-Welles Gallery.

Women have always been an imperative part of the urban art scene, with legends like Claw Money and Fafi making their mark on cities around the world. And although the man is making it more and more difficult for artists of both sexes to put up their work in public places, these ladies have still found ways to stay relevant and continue creating compelling art. Claw Money has her eponymous, ultra cool fashion line , Fafi did a collaboration with MAC Cosmetics, designing some insanely awesome, drool-worthy makeup bags, and Swoon, one of my all time favorites (not technically a graffiti writer but the consummate street artist), has launched her Swimming Cities expeditions and is represented by Deitch Projects. One of the best things about all this is that these artists have managed to break into the commercial world without selling out.

I’m really excited that the art and fashion worlds are starting to recognize truly talented graffiti writers, especially women, so I’m super stoked for this upcoming exhibition at McCaig-Welles Gallery in Brooklyn. Queens Arrive: International All Female Graffiti Artists Exhibition runs April 10-May 3. Artists featured include Fafi, Claw Money, Klor, and a whole lot more. The works of Martha Cooper, who photographed NYC subway graffiti during its heyday in the 1970s and 80s, also will be part of the exhibition.

(Note: I originally wrote this post for bust.com, where it appeared first. What can I say? I gotta multitask these days!)

Women and Art

Sotheby's announced on Friday that it is mounting an exhibition April 2-14, focusing solely on women. Let me clarify. The artworks --everything from Andy Warhol's Turquoise Marilyn silkscreen to Henri Matisse's bronze Figure Decorative sculpture --all depict females. They are on loan from mega-collectors Steven and Alexandra Cohen.

While it's great that the Cohens are willing to loan works for a free show, it's always tricky mounting a show that focuses on gender, and it should always be done with deep consideration for context. It irks me that Steven Cohen's explanation for the "Women" theme is that he simply finds "focusing on one theme intriguing," and Sotheby's explanation, via The New York Times, is that it helps build the auction house's brand and relationship with the Cohens. What we have here is a huge missed opportunity to take a serious, in-depth look at how females have been depicted in art and how this has shaped our attitudes about women, sexual roles, sterotypes and attitudes toward gender. Given that Sotheby's announced the upcoming exhibition during March, National Women's History Month, it almost seems like a no-brainer.

Speaking of Women's History Month, the New York Public Library's blog has a month of great posts about female writers, artists, and others who have made a difference.